his fon to him, and entered into converfation. The Duke being unable to thifle his curiofity, feized on this opportunity to fatisfy his impatience. "Was it you," fays he, whom I'faw yesterday near to the high-way, holding a plough fuperbly decorated?" "Yes, my Lord," replies the Baron: "next to a war undertaken for the defence of one's country, I know of no occupation more honourable for a'gentleman, than that of cultivating his own eftate; I therefore do this as an example to my my fon." Thus thought, and thus acted the ancient Swi's, who, equal'ing the Romans in their courage, refembled them alfo in their tafte for agriculture and a country life. The fame hands that wielded the lance, or carried the banner, thought not themselves dif. honoured by using the fpade, and brightening the ploughfhare. More than once, in the midst of the Alps, and at the foot of mount Jura, as well as on the banks of the. Tiber, the General has been feen leaving his plough, to repel, at the head of his equals, the enemies of his and returning triumphant, he has been known to follow his fufpended labours with additional ardouri One may fee from thence, that a ftate may be as much indebted for its profperity, country; to CERES' feythe, as to BELLONA's fwerd. But it is more especially in an age when agriculture appears to be honor ed-in an age when Economical Societies are every where occupied in differtations, in obfervations, &c.-in an age when the marthes of Aunis, of Flanders, and part of the waste lands about Bourdeaux, have been fubjected to agriculture, and changed either into pafture or corn lands:→→ in fuch an age, I fay, it is not a little furprising, that the people of Berne do not endeavour to drain the marfir of Anet. "If I were a Lieutenant of the Po-. lice:" (this fingular exclamation is at tributed to a fovereign who loved his people,)" If I were a Lieutenant of "the Police, I would prohibit cabriz lets." As for myself, were I at the head of the republic at Berne, that in digent and fterile country which fur rounds and compofes the marsh of Anet fhould be drained and dedicated to agriculture in the space of two years. There is no land, however barren it is, or however much it may be covered with briars and thorns, but the fpade and the hedging-bill will make it wave with a golden haryeft, or bloom with rofes. WILLIAM TELL THE most enthufiaftic hiftorian has infinitely lefs refpect for his hero, than the Swifs have for the memory of William Tell, whom they regard. as the deliverer of his country, and the founder of its republican liberty. There never has been any man in Switzerland, whom the artifts of all kinds have taken fuch pains to immortalize in portraits, bufts, medallions; you every where, and in every fhape, encounter the image of William Tell. The engraver, the painter, the fculptor, have multiplied his refemblance under a thousand allegories. At every corner, in every street, and in almost every part of Switzerland, Tell is reprefented darting an arrow into the apple placed on his fon's head. Many people, however, ftill dubious of the authenticity of this anecdote, Light low chaifes, fometimes with one and fometimes with two horfes, which the young nobility were used to drive in a furious manner along the streets of Paris and the environs, to the great danger of the foot-paffengers. The fuppreffion of this nuifance is one of the many evils that have been corrected by the late Revolution. anecriote, treat the whole as a fiction, and difbelieve the autrocity of Grifler, the ftory of the hat, of the apple, and even the existence of William Tell himself. Where is the nation, however, which does not furnish a numerous lift of conquerors and of heroes, of whom the hiftory and the exiftence is not fupported by more authentic proofs, than the gods, the Demi-gods, the imaginary battles, and fuppofitious warriors of Linus, of Homer, and of Orpheus? NATIONAL FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF Swiss PATRIOTISM. WHATEVER may be the doubts in regard to the hero of Switzerland, they celebrate every year at Arth, in the canton of Scheverick, a national and patriotic feftival in honor of William Tell. I have feen-I was prefent at, and was highly delighted with this festival. Preceded by two heralds at arms of a gigantic fize, and by warlike mufic, the cavalcade proceeds from the neighbouring country to the town of Arth, where there is a theatre erected in the middle of the public fquare. The enius of ancient Helvetia, carrying in one hand a fhield emblazoned with the arms of the Thirteen Cantons, and in the other a lance furmounted by the Cap of Liberty, leads the proceffion, escorted by two warriors armed at all points, each wielding a battle' axe, and a troop of herdimen dreffed like the fhepherds of the Alps, with lea thern caps on their heads, and maffy clubs over their fhoulders; after them the captain of the cross-bowmen approaches, at the head of a company clad in green, and armed with bows: thefe are followed by William Tell and his fon, and the three other patriots, Stauffacher, Melchtal and Furit. The domeftics of Governor Grifler fucceed thefe, dreffed in the fashion of that age, and bearing a pike on which the hat of their mafter is placed. Soon after the deputies of the Thirteen Cantons make their appearance, each preceded by a young man carrying a banner, and a herald dreffed in the uniform of his profeffion. The cavalcade is clofed by a company of twenty foldiers, fix feet high, chofen from among the handfomeft young men of the whole country. The proceffion having arrived at the theatre, and the spectators being feated on benches elevated above each other, in the manner of the ancient amphitheatres, the Genius of Helvetia advances, and delivers an oration, of which the following is the tranfation: 'O Helvetia, country of heroes! of all the nations fcattered over the face of this, globe, thine is the fole one that enjoyelt completely the first of all earthly bieffings-LIBERTY! From the fummit of its Alps, it lees nothing but injuftice armed to deftroy the fmiling labours of the peafant-fanguinary defpotifm fporting with the rights and with the lives • of mankind; ambition, vengeance, and pride, defolating the moft fer'tile countries; and effiminacy, lux6 ury, and debauchery, anticipating the effects of age! 'You alone, O my friends! You alone enjoy, without flaves and without mafters, thofe poffefhons which you owe only to Heaven to the intrepedity of your ancestors and to your own induftry. You are nourished with the milk, which the numerous herds that roam among your valles furnish you with in abundance; you breathe a pure air, which strangers come in fearch of trom afar, as a certain remedy for 'difeafe; you drink at the foot of your rocks, a beverage more refreshing than that prefented in golden veffels at the banquets of Kings; you choose your own Magiftrates B.b 2 from among your own equals; you obey thofe laws only which you yourfelves have dictated. If any of your deliverers, when at a distance from the vigilant eye of their tyrant, they confpired to break his iron you chooses to appreciate the happi-yoke.-There is the facred plain, • nefs contained within the boundary of his little poffeffion, he fhall find him elf equal to the mafters of the world, and will neither envy their palaces, nor their flatterers. On this occafion, when gladness reigns in our mountains, fome teftify their joy by fongs and by dancing, and others by banquets and by maf querades. As to us, we offer up a public and a folema homage to our • brave deliverers; we fir up in every bofom the love of Liberty, and we crown with garlands the lace of our • beloved country! But above all things, O brave • Helvetians, above all things, imprint upon your minds the remembrance of thofe great events which you this day folemnize. Salute then, thefe auguft fcenes-blefs this famous fpot-this fpot facred to liberty, on which you have fo of en trod ⚫ without reflection-bathe in tears the ftones which form the monuments of your forefathers glory! At every step your country feems to cry to you "Stop, you trample under • your feet the unknown tomb of fome where the aufpicious arrow of Kin nemberg fell. On that fide is the venerable chapel of William Tell; and you fce below, the narrow bounda•ries of the field of battle, where • Vinkchied, and fo many of your ge nerous ancestors cemented the foundation of riding liberty with their blod. And what do the manes of fo many heroes demand from you? O, my friends! O, my brothers! they • demand that you thould follow their example--they demand, that you 'fhould imitate their unbroken integrity, their noble fimplicity, and their mafculine courage they demand, that you fhould preferve the glory they acquired, fpotlefs, * * I doubt not, O Helvetians! but that the reprefentation of the deeds ⚫ of former times has at once interefted and affected you; may this icene remain impreffed upon your minds, and preferve in you the love of your 'country, and of all its ancient virtucs! You who are the youthful fons of the fhepherds of the mountains, fee how the fon of William Tell was made an inftrument by Heaven, to preferve the innocence of his father, and the honour of Here is the folitary field of Rut- his country. Be courageous like Hi, which formerly gave fhelter to that boy, who never turned a • héro." Way way his head, who never even in the feats of war; but refolve only faut his eyes, and exclaim with to ufe your arms in the defence pride" Although we are yet but of your children, your laws, and children, we are nevertheless 'your religion. the defcendants of ancient heroes; • and underneath our little leathern caps, the generous blood of Switzer• land, even now, animates us to • glory!" * * ** * * * Young bowmen-ye who ftill carry ⚫ the arms of William Tell-ye who • exercise them, that you may attain perfection, fay with me-If fhould come, we the enemy And you, ye illuftrious people, • defcended from thefe freemen, renew in your hearts this univerfal confederation; cement it by the language of brotherhood and of peace: fo that each canton may hold out an Helvetian hand to its neighbour; and its citizen may be ready to ferve, his country at the expence even of his life." Anecdotes of Archery; by H. G. Oldfield. T the general diftribution of fa A culties, the Cmnipotent be flowed the power of invention on the human race alone. Man being endowed with this bleffing, has produced many wonderful, but more ufeful difcoveries. Derham fomewhere obferves, that the ufe of things which mankind had the greateft occafion for, was found out long before others which are not fo effential, or of pernicious confequences-neceflity is the great affiftant of invention--the a d of nature is feldom wanting-and chance is frequently the parent of great dacoveries. Archery is of fo great antiquity, that at what time, and by whom first practifed, is very uncertain; and whether the inftruments thereof were the contrivance of necefity on fome fudden emergency, or a difcovery owing to the pure cfects of chance, is equally doubt:ul. No instrument has fo generally obtained throughout the earth as the bow; very few nations but have fome time or other used it even now in many places it is a common weapon. This general prevalence makes it doubtful whet er more perfons than one may not jutily lay claim to the invention as their own; we find it in the further parts of Afia, and the moft northern of Europe; in Africa it is alfo common. The first discoverers found the bow and arrows among the Americans. It is not improbable that Nimrod knew the ufe of the bow, confidering he was a great hunter, and a man of War. We are certain that the later Paniarchs were not ignorant of it. The Grecians were well acquaint yed with thefe weapons, and their bow was (fays Montfaucon) fhaped after the fathion of the letter. At the siege of Troy, the bow and arrow were in common ufe; the poets fay that a Centaur was brought into the army who fhot his arrows with fuch force as to pierce through two or three ranks. It is not evident that the Romans, in the carly part of the republic, had the bow. They made ufe of it however afterwards, though their archers were for the moft part auxiliaries, yer they were not unacquainted with this exercife, as appears by the Emperor Commodus, who was uncommonly dexterous therein. They had 'mallers at Rome to teach the art; among whom was T. Flavius Expeditus, whofe image Spon has given from a fepulchral bafs relief, where he is called Doctor Sagittorum. The Perfians and Parthians were reckoned very expert bowmen; and Herodotus, fpeaking of the army of Xerxes, mentions the following nations who were armed with bows and qui vers; viz. the Perfians, Medes, Affyrians, Scythians, Parthians, Indians, and Arabs, whofe arrows for the most part were of cane, pointed with fome hard confiftence. The forms of the ancient bow are pretty much alike, they have generally two inflections or bendings, between which, in the place where the arrow is laid, is a right line: Thefe fort of bows must be compofed of three different pieces of wood to be of fuch a form, which of courfe would give it elafticity and a ftronger spring. The common weapons of the Indians are bows and arrows; Columbus found them among the Caribbs and Weft Indians. In his fecond voyage, meeting with a canoe with with four men and one woman, who perceiving they could not baffle their purfuers, put themselves in a pofture of defence, and the female foot an arrow with fuch force and dexterity, that it actually went through a strong target ; but the Spaniard's attempting to board them, overfet the canoe, fo that they betook themselves to fwimming, and one of them ufed his bow in the water as well as if he had been on dry land. Guadaloupe, at the first difcovery, was inhabited by women only; thefe amazons opposed the landing of the Spaniards with their bows and arrows. Several of the Indian nations shot poifoned arrows, but to the honour of Indian humanity, the ufe of fuch horible weapons was among the canibal part of them chiefly. Sir Walter Raleigh met with fome of thefe in his voyage up the country of Guiana; and Cavendish had one of his men killed with a poifoned arrow at Sierra Leona. The Brafilians, when difcovered by De Cabral, a Portugefe captain, used bows, which they hot fo dexteronfly, as very feldom to mifs their aim, and their arrows were pointed with fish bone that would penetrate the thickeft boards. In Drake's voyage, the Brafilian bows are defcribed of an ell in length. De Gama, another Portuguese, found bows and arrows in the East Indian ifles; they were also used in Calcutta, which he experienced to the lofs of a number of his men. When the renowned Sir Francis Drake was making his expedition by land to intercept the Spanish caravan loaded with treafure, falling short of provifions, and not daring to fire a gun left he should hazard a discovery, the Symerons who accompanied him fupplied him with food with their bows and arrows: these people confifted of fuch Indians who fled from the cruelty of their mafters, the Spaniards, and forming themselves into a strong body, built a town in an advantageous place, and refifted the Spaniards by force of arms. I find no mention of the bow among the Britons, and the Romans making |